


Opening Old Doors

by Ishbella



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Chess, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-31 02:43:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3961465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ishbella/pseuds/Ishbella
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cullen plays chess with the inquisitor for the first time. After dorian and leliana's cheating playing with someone who plays fair is a novelty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Opening Old Doors

**Author's Note:**

> game dialogue for part of it.

Dorian had come to his office a few hours after lunch and challenged him to a game. Goaded was more accurate. Leliana had let it slip to him that Cullen had played a few games with her while the Inquisitor was away so naturally the man decided he wanted a go.

  
The chess set like the scarf was something Cullen had one of the soldiers buy for him when the Inquisitor went to Val Royeaux. Like everything from Orlais it was ostentatious, completely at odds with his simple Ferelden tastes. Each piece was gold gilded and made from marble, black and white marble. The white pieces were dressed in Orleasian style, each of the higher ranked pieces wearing a tiny gilded mask. The black pieces were of course Ferelden style, the knights replaced by perfectly carved Mabari war hounds. Still he couldn’t help but choose to play with the black pieces.

  
As they played together Cullen had quizzed Dorian about Crestwood and was distressed to hear about the frequency of Kiraka’s nightmares while she was away. Of course he knew she had them, but she rarely woke up in a panic when she shared his bed. The frequency of her nightmares in Crestwood worried him, Dorian told him they were so bad Cole had taken to lying next to her when she slept.

  
It turned out that Dorian barely had a basic grasp on the rules, he knew how the pieces moved and little else. Cullen felt he should have known better than to believe any of Dorian’s boasting because his main tactic appeared to be distract and switch, the same move often used by Leliana when she was losing.

  
“Gloat all you like, I have this one” Cullen declared leaning forwards and feeling smug. The victory would be all the sweeter because the Tevinter Mage was cheating, or rather attempting to cheat. He was the same as Leliana, she was far better at cheating than Dorian but Cullen had never once allowed her to win. He found beating those who cheated at chess unusually satisfying, in a perverted way but he did wish he had someone he could play with honestly, who wouldn’t cheat.

  
Mentally he sighed, that was unlikely to happen unless he asked Kiraka to play with him, he was pretty sure she wouldn’t cheat. Maybe he should get around to asking her if she liked to play or would be willing to play, there was still so much they didn’t know about each other. The breach hadn’t left a lot of time for discussing their pasts and the time they got to spend together now wasn’t much better.

  
“Are you sassing me Commander? I didn’t know you had it in you.” Dorian said snidely hitting a nerve. They had been beginning to get along much better now, since she had kissed him after Haven. Most of his jealousy had long since died after discovering that she liked him back, it had made it easier for Cullen to begin to build a friendship with the Mage.

  
“Why do I even –Inquisitor” he began to sigh before noticing Kiraka coming towards them and beginning to rise. The piece he had been about to move ensuring Dorian’s defeat clattered on the board when he dropped it. He wasn’t sure why he had reacted like he was being caught out doing something embarrassing but that was what it felt like.

  
“Leaving are you? Does this mean I win?” Dorian drawled just a little too quickly for his liking, not having moved an inch and smirking. Unwilling to let the overconfident man just win by default Cullen eased himself back into his chair shaking his head.

  
Kiraka came to a stop just in front of the board. “Are you two playing nice?” the question seemed to be more pointed towards Dorian. She had been there to witness the few times the Tevinter had pushed him too far and knew that her friend’s sass and snark could rub him the wrong way.

  
“I’m always nice” Dorian drawled out giving him a pointed smirk. “You need to come to terms with my inevitable victory. You’ll feel much better” he continued. It amused Cullen that he actually thought he was going to win, that he didn’t know the rules enough to know Cullen basically had him over a barrel at this point. If the man had been willing to admit he couldn’t play Cullen would have gone easy on him, maybe even let him win.   
“Really? Because I just won, and I feel fine” He chuckled smugly, putting Dorian’s king into checkmate with a flourish.

  
“Don’t get smug. There will be no living with you.” Dorian retaliated a little annoyed that he had lost while cheating. Their game was over, for all his cheating the game had been enjoyable and Cullen hoped that he would continue to play with him. Not that he would ever tell him that, of course.

  
As Dorian left the garden gazebo, he gave Kiraka a quick peck on the cheek. A few months ago Cullen would have been a seething ball of envy over the innocent gesture of affection. Maker’s breath, he had been such a fool, he thought to himself now seeing the gesture for what it was.

  
“I should return to my duties as well, unless you would care for a game?” This wasn’t how he had planned on asking her to play with him, he had planned on being slightly more subtle than this but now was as good as ever, he supposed. He also wondered if she was coming to find him because she needed something or if she had just gone to his office and found him gone. She had probably just come to make sure he was alright. She seemed to pause for a moment, considering, he thought she was going to say no and then she nodded.

  
“Prepare the board, Commander” she said playfully and he released the breath he had been holding.

  
“As a child, I played this with my sister. She would get this stuck up grin on her face whenever she won –which was all the time.” He told her with a smile as she moved to take the seat across from him, now vacated by Dorian. “My brother and I practised together for weeks. The look on her face the day I finally won… Between serving the Templars and the Inquisition, I haven’t seen them in years. I wonder if she still plays”

  
He heard his voice trail off a little and felt his face fall; he was ashamed that he didn’t even know that much about his sister anymore. He should write to them more, he knew he should; it was just hard. He wasn’t the boy they remembered and he would never be that person again.

  
“You have siblings?” he heard her ask. There was a note in her voice that indicated that she was angry at herself for never asking. They had stayed away from the topic of families in Haven and he hadn’t known how to just broach the subject with her. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought she would be interested in his, she had just lost most of hers and he hadn’t wanted to upset her.

  
Well in for a copper in for a silver, he thought. She looked genuinely interested in knowing now that he had brought it up. “Two sisters and a brother.” He told her as they began resetting the board for their game.

  
“Where are they now?” It was a loaded question. He felt a verbal trap setting around him, she was fond of those. Little conversational traps meant to tease him although this didn’t feel like one of those.

  
“They moved to South Reach after the blight. I do not write to them as often as I should.” Maker’s breath, he had not meant to say that last part. He looked up and saw disapproval on her face and hastily changed the subject. “Ah, it’s my turn” he said drawing her attention to the game at hand and knowing she would mention this again later.

  
“Alright, let’s see what you’ve got” she declared, for now content to let the subject of his letter writing drop. Her trap had sprung and she had caught him out, he assumed his letters home would be more frequent now.

  
She wasn’t very good but she did know the basics. She was also not cheating, content to play and lose honestly against him. If she was willing to continue playing, if she enjoyed it enough to want to continue playing, she could become competent at the game. Cullen hoped she would enjoy chess, enjoy playing the quiet game with him and talking about little things. It always felt like they didn’t spend enough time together, which was ridiculous because they spent quite a large portion of time together and they did speak of things other than the Inquisition. “We should spend more time together, playing together like this” her voice echoed his thoughts. Her face set in an adorable little scowl as she tried to plot her next move.

  
“I would like that.” he was trying not to sound over eager but he couldn’t help smiling. The idea of playing chess with her on a regular basis was not something to get so excited about; he really needed to stop acting like a love sick teenager around her.

  
“Me too” she repeated looking up at him from her lashes and moving her piece into position. It took a moment for his brain to comprehend that he had flustered her, flustered her enough for her to repeat herself. That she was just as over eager for this as he was.

 

“You said that” he heard his voice go all soft and husky. He watched as a pretty blush spread over her cheeks at being caught out, making her blush was a rare occurrence. “We should…finish our game, right. My turn?”

  
As they continued to play, he told her another small story from his childhood. Of the time he had gone out exploring with his brother and sisters and they had been so late home, covered in mud and one of his sisters missing a shoe, that they had been house bound for a week as punishment. Well, it had supposed to have been a week but the four bored children had driven their parents to distraction and were finally after four days told in no uncertain terms to go outside. Her musical laughter rang out through the garden, making him smile. He saw a few of the Chantry Clerics look over at them and smile before returning to their duties.

  
In return she shared a story of a time before the Circle. Her brothers and sister had snuck out of etiquette lessons, not Asaleigh though, they had spent half the day learning what spoon to use and how to fold a napkin and finally the three young children had enough of the boring lessons and snuck out. She told him that they went to a nearby lake; the lake had a huge ruinous bridge from the days of ancient Tevinter partially over it. One by one, she said they stripped off their clothing down to their smalls and climbed the bridge. His heart did a little flip at the thought of her doing something so dangerous. She laughed as she described them jumping off the bridge into the deep lake and then later as their confidence grew doing flips off it. She had failed on a flip and landed back first into the water, she came out of the water apparently looking like she had terrible sunburn.

  
They had been caught and punished severely for it. Banishment to their rooms and bread and water meals for three days, but it sounded like the day had been fun. Not long after that she told him, her magic manifested and she was sent to the Circle.

  
Their game was nearly over now; he was slowly allowing her to put him into checkmate, a few more moves and she would have him.

  
“I believe this one is yours, well played” he said rather smugly as he leaned back into his chair, she finally put him into checkmate. Losing to her had been a challenge but one he would gladly do again, if it meant she wouldn’t get frustrated and give up. He remembered clearly the feeling of playing against someone so much better and losing constantly, he wouldn’t put her through that; he wanted her to come to enjoy playing the game.   
She sighed as she got up and walked around the small table to him, his arms came up to her hips and then around her waist as she sat on his lap. “That’s because you let me win” she informed him as she rested her head on his shoulder. He wondered how she knew he had let her win.

  
“I did not. You won on your own” he lied, kissing her forehead. No matter what she said he would never admit it to her. She laughed at his poor attempt to lie, not convinced at all.

  
“Deny it all you want, love. One day I’ll beat you all on my own” she whispered resolutely from his shoulder. That she had just said she would continue playing with him made his heart flutter a little in his chest, finally a chess partner who wouldn’t cheat and another way they could spend time together.

  
“You’ll continue playing?” he couldn’t help but ask, his arms tightening around her.

  
She planted a kiss on his neck before she said “Yes, but in exchange you have to write to your family more” she chuckled at the groan that escaped him, he had known she wouldn’t forget and would bring it up later. “If you don’t want to tell them about yourself and how you’re going, why don’t you tell them about the Inquisition?” She suggested, knowing that the first few letters would be the hardest for him, that it was hard for him to let people into his life. Well, hard to allow other people into his life, she had just walked in and set up shop like she had always been there.

  
“What could I tell them?” Cullen asked her, eager for suggestions; he had spent years pushing them out of his life and now he wasn’t certain how to let them back in, if he deserved to let them back in. He owed Mia a decent letter since he had forgotten to tell her that he survived Haven, he had gotten her angry letter just before Kiraka left for Crestwood.

  
“Hmm. You could tell them about Sera playing pranks on you, or the little things Cole does around Skyhold? What about Josephine’s not so subtle attempts to get you to abandon your armour? There are heaps of little things you deal with every day that they would probably find amusing.” Her suggestions were harmless, easy to talk about things. They were a good idea, he was glad he asked her. Eventually he would tell Mia about her and maybe even one day what she meant to him.

  
“Thank you, Kiraka” he told her sincerely, pressing another kiss into her head and stroking her hair. He didn’t deserve her but now he couldn’t remember how he had ever been without her.


End file.
